Tuesday, February 3, 2015

IT'S SHLOCK, BUT ... THERE'S A PLACE FOR SCHLOCK: All 121 Billy Joel songs, ranked, only one of which is described as "highly popular and inescapably bad." Also, this general note, which certainly applies to that song:

Too many sound effects. The shattering sound that opens Glass Houses, the helicopters in “Goodnight Saigon,” TV static and dial tones: All are gimmicky, and most are cliché. I’ll admit that the brake screech in “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” is fun.

15 comments:

I'm not familiar enough with Sleeping With The Television On to know whether it merits such a high ranking. I had no problems with No. 1. I did think You're My Home and Downeaster Alexa were far too low.

I never saw the point of Sleeping With the Television On, and also think You're My Home should be higher. I've always been a fan of Traveling Prayer, and I think one ripe for re-discovery is Temptation (way way down near the bottom).

But the thing that strikes me most is that (with the exception of River of Dreams which I never bought) all these tunes came immediately to mind many years after I heard them last. I am still uncool.

Sleeping with the Television On isn't my favorite, but I think it's a defensible opinion. This is a decent list, though I agree that You're My Home is too low, as are Vienna, Summer Highland Falls (which he basically admits, but hey, it's not his thing and he says that), and Keeping the Faith. It's a good list.

There are about half a dozen songs in the 70s-90s that I'd rank higher- including This Night, While the Night is Still Young and The Downeaster Alexa. I'd also rank Until the Night much higher than 68, probably top 20. Re the sound effects, I love that dial tone at the beginning of Sometimes a Fantasy. I saw Billy Joel in concert 7 times between 1993 and 1999- when I was a teenager. I'm considering getting tickets for the show at Citizens Bank Park this summer but I'm leaning towards letting live version of those songs live in the past.

I saw him on one of his later tours with Elton John, but it was still a while ago, maybe 2002 or so. I've been hoping one of my annual trips to New York/New Jersey coincides with one of his stops at Madison Square Garden.

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